


Desert Born, Space Intended

by idjit_666



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Happy life for Keith, He was raised by both parents, He's got his family around him., Keith is a Mess, Keith never lost his family, Keith's a blade of marmora, Keith's dad is names Tex, Papa kogane doesn't die, So he really isn't the lone wolf
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2019-07-05 11:45:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15862968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idjit_666/pseuds/idjit_666
Summary: Krolia decides to stay on earth to protect the blue lion and raise her son with Tex Kogane. So cue eighteen years later, Keith is all grown up and is in training to be a Blade of Marmora just like his mom. He's grown up in the desert, being raised to protect the blue lion from the threat of the Glaran Empire, so he first meets the rest of the paladins is when they come a knocking for the blue lion. Papa and mama Kogane go along for the(extremely bumpy) ride.





	1. Chapter 1

Keith grew up different than most kids, sure he went to school when he was younger, he went to friend’s birthday parties but he had a secret that he could never tell anyone. He was half alien. His mom was apart of an alien race called the Galra. He didn’t know much about his mom’s side other than that they were conquerors. The emperor Zarkon wanted to control the entire universe. His mom was apart of this rogue group of Galra called the Blade of Marmora. It was a sick name if you asked Keith. It sounded so badass. His mom was badass. Her mission on Earth and how she met dad was to find this weapon that could be used against Zarkon and protect it from getting destroyed by Zarkon’s forces. Keith didn’t know what this weapon was and why mom and the rest of the members of the Blade of Marmora couldn’t use it now against Zarkon. His mom told him that only a special person could use it and that she wasn’t it. Nor was dad. Or probably Keith. He didn’t know that for sure because he’s never seen this weapon, Voltron(that’s what its name is) before. It was buried deep in the caves near their small cottage in the desert. It’s where mom went every day to make sure that it was safe while dad went to work. Keith is now old enough, he’ll join mom in protecting Voltron. He wanted to become a Blade of Marmora. 

So as apart of his training, mom had made up a patrol schedule for the two of them. Keith would pace the dessert in secret, watching the ground and of the air, trying to scare off anyone who approached the vague area near the entrance of the caves that lead to Voltron. They couldn’t risk humans finding Voltron. If they found it then they would take it and run tests and accidentally alert Zarkon. They couldn’t risk bringing the heat of the Galran army to Earth. Earth was underdeveloped compared to the Glara and many other civilizations in the Universe. They were weak. 

What mom and dad were worried the most(other than the Glara finding Voltron) was the Garrison. The Garrison was a military base that was a couple of miles out from their home and Voltron. A big part of what the Garrison does was training future pilots of fighter jets and space flights. There were many practice flights that flew over them, forcing Keith to dive into places so he wouldn't be spotted. Sometimes he would sit in his vantage point and watch the flights go by. It wasn’t Keith couldn’t fly(it was one of the first things that mom had taught him) it was just that he didn’t have much time to fly. They had to fly at night so they would avoid detection. 

Keith felt lonely sometimes. He felt especially lonely when he would watch the squads of pilots fly together. Sometimes he missed hanging around other people like him. Except there was no one like him. He was half Galran, half human. He was his own species. 

It felt alienating. 

He didn’t know his own strength or limits. No one did. Not even mom. Keith was the first of his kind. There were other half Galrans but he was the only half human, half Galran. Through his training, Keith has started to learn his limits. Even at a young age, he could surpass his father in many physical activities such as running, climbing, weight lifting but when he went against his mom, she was the clear winner. 

Keith was on patrol when he saw the ship. He saw the flames light up the night sky and he had watched it’s decent and crash into the barren desert. His communicator bust to life. Keith winced at the static that ran through his ear. “You see that Keith?” Mom’s voice echoed in his ear. 

“I see it. Going in for a closer look.” 

“ Be careful Keith and stay high up within the cliffs. Garrison officers are already on scene. Krolia are you going as well?” Dad cut in. 

“Affirmative. Keith, I will rendezvous with you when I get there.” As usual, mom was curt and to the point. 

“Copy that. On my way over to landing point now.” Keith copied his mother’s tone and took off and headed for the crash site. His footsteps echoed against the rocks as he powered through, jumping from cliff to cliff, dust settling at his feet. Keith ghosted across the painted black rocks and tried to get as close as possible without them seeing him. 

It was hard to tell what was going on. Garrison officers, as dad had told him, were all over the scene. A tented main head command had been put up next to the still smouldering ship. Keith had arrived just in time to see the officers pull someone out of the ship. 

Keith slipped closer to get a closer look. The survivor looked human. Male, tall, black hair with a white tuff, and a scar across his nose. What really got Keith’s curiosity was the survivor’s arm. It didn’t match the rest of his body. It was metallic and fake looking. It was glowing a slight purple. 

The survivor was yelling at them, trying to warn them about something. But what he was trying to warn them about, Keith couldn’t make out. The officers around the survivor were yelling at him with their weapons drawn. Why did the survivor look so familiar to Keith? 

“That’s Galran technology. What’s a human doing with Galran tech?” Mom asked, her voice soft and Keith barely could make out what she was saying. Keith didn’t jump, he had heard her sneak up on him. His instincts were finely honed and thanks to his Galran genes, his hearing was astronomically better than the average human beings. 

“Don’t know. He was trying to warn them about something. Not sure what it could be, he hasn’t been able to get a full sentence out. You think the Galra abducted him?” Keith asked his mom. 

He looked over to his mom who was staring at the scene with a gaze so steady and calm that it made him nervous. “Our scans would have picked up any ships that would have entered the atmosphere. We would have known.” 

“I mean, it could be possible. The Garrison is known for sending people into space. They could have abducted him from his mission.” Keith offered that possibility. The scene in front of him was providing him with evidence for his theory. The survivor was shouting one of the officer’s name, trying to get help but the commanding officer wasn’t listening to the survivor. 

“Tex, can you patch into the security feeds? I want to see what’s going on inside.” Mom stared at the group of officers that had disappeared into the makeshift HQ. Keith was curious as well. He wanted to know why he recognized this man.

“Most likely. Garrison tech is state of the art but it’s not Galran level,” Dad assured mom. Keith huddled closer to his mother and squinted at the screen that popped up from her gauntlet. 

Keith saw the survivor being pulled somewhere, pleading to be let go. The survivor was soon to be strapped down to a table. "Hey! What are you doing?" The survivor demanded. 

"Calm down, Shiro. We just need to keep you quarantined until we run some tests on you,” the commanding officer, Iverson tried to placate the survivor, Shiro. 

"You have to listen to me! They destroyed worlds! Aliens are coming!" Shiro yelled. Keith shared a look with his mother. It was hard to tell what she was thinking from behind her mask but her quiet nature was unsettling. He must be talking about the Galra. It would make sense. Shiro had Galran tech on him. 

"Do you know how long you've been gone?" Iverson asked. 

"I don't know. Months? Years? Look, there's no time. Aliens are coming here for a weapon. They're probably on their way. They'll destroy us! We have to find Voltron!" Keith went cold. Voltron. The Galra were coming for Voltron. The sharp intake from his father on the line and the stillness of his mother confirmed that they were thinking the same thing that Keith was. 

It also dawned on where Keith knew Shiro. He nudged his mother, getting her attention. “He’s a pilot for the Garrison,” Keith hissed. 

“How do you know that?” Mom asked. 

“He came to my school once to do propaganda for the Garrison. He’s one of the best, taking on some of the riskiest missions. He must have been on mission when the Galra took him.” 

“The Garrison did have a failed mission to Kerberos. They said the mission was botched because of a piloting error,” Dad supplied. Mom was silent on the matter, watching the screen with heavy intent. 

"Sir, take a look at this. It appears his arm has been replaced with a cyborg prosthetic," a technician piped up. 

"Put him under until we know what that thing can do," Iverson ordered. 

"Don't, don't be me under! No! No, there's no time! Let me go!” Shiro pleaded.

“What do we do? We need to get him out of here and find out what he knows about the Galra. You heard him, they’re coming for Voltron.” Keith looked at his mother for his answer. 

He looked over the scene and his blood went cold once again when he made eye contact with someone across the hastily set up HQ. Whoever it was, he wasn’t a Garrison officer. He was too young and nothing impressive. The boy was lanky with messy brown hair and an upturned nose. He looked like a recruit for the Garrison. Then why was he here? Keith looked from the tent back to the boy(and his friends who appeared) and came to the conclusion that the boy and his friends were here for the same reason Keith was. He was here for Shiro.

The boy blinked and looked over to his friends. Keith took the chance to disappear into the shadows. When the boy looked back, Keith was gone from sight.  

“There is nothing we can do here now, we will come back tomorrow night and free Shiro. Right now we need to make sure that Voltron is safe.” Keith was reluctant to leave Shiro but followed his mother’s orders. “Go back to your father and make sure that the satellites are working. I will go check on Voltron.” 

“See you at home mom.” Keith waved and split from his mother. “You ready for me?” 

Over the communicator, Keith heard dad sighed in faux annoyance. “I suppose.” 

“Be nice Tex.” Keith could hear the laughter in mom’s voice. It made him happy to hear them tease each other. He didn’t know what his life would be like if he didn’t have his parents. 

In the distance, Keith could see their porch light flickering. For as long as Keith could remember, that light has never stopped flickering. No matter what dad tried to do, it just continued to flicker.  

“I’m back,” Keith yelled into the house. 

“Good. Didn’t even need you though. Figured out how to work the system on my own,” Dad appeared in the front hallway, eating a bowl of what looked to be mac and cheese. “Dinner’s ready if you want some.” 

“I’m down.” Keith shouldered his way into the kitchen. 

                                                                                ***

They returned in the next evening and it was chaos. Mom and Keith couldn’t find a way to get in, there was soldiers running through and Iverson who had graciously gifted the makeshift HQ with his presence. “What’s going on?” Keith muttered, looking around and trying to form some sort of theory. 

His prayers were answered when Iverson turned to the head of this makeshift HQ. “What do you mean that Shirogane is gone?” He yelled. Beside Keith, mom was still. Keith looked over at her and then back to the poor commanding officer.  

“We’re not sure sir. All of the cameras have been wiped. The only thing that we’ve found out was that there were three individuals dressed up in hazmat suits who didn’t have clearance entered the room where officer Shirogane was being held,” the commanding officer squeaked out. 

“Let’s go. There’s nothing else here for us,” mom said quietly.

For the second time, Keith left this makeshift HQ and headed into the night with his mother. The two of them didn’t talk until they were huddled on an outcrop looking over the dessert. “What now?” Keith asked. 

The dim purple glow from his mother’s mask was unsettling. Keith could hear his father on the other end, on the edge of his seat, waiting for mom to answer. “We don’t know who took Shirogane. It could be Galran forces that slipped past our radar,” mom mused.  

Keith thought back to last night. Trying to see if he remembered anything that could help him. He thought of messy hair and wide eyes. “It might not be the Galra.” 

“What you mean there kiddo?” Dad asked. 

“Last night, I think I saw Garrison recruits who had sneaked over to see what was going on. I dismissed it but they might have broken in and freed Shirogane,” Keith explained. 

Mom looked like she was considering it. “You may be correct Keith, either way, Voltron needs protection. Tex, meet us at the entrance of Voltron’s home. You know what to bring.” 

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll see you both there,” Dad responded quickly before disappearing from the communication. 

Keith looked over at his mother. Was she that worried for Voltron? If Shirogane had been abducted by those Garrison recruits, he kind of doubted that they would be able to access or even find Voltron. It was well hidden by forces that were long gone. Keith and his family were carrying on that tradition. “Never underestimate these sorts of things Keith. That has been the reason why countless empires have fallen,” mom chided Keith. 

“Of course.” Keith felt the burn of shame on the back of his neck.

Mom put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Are you ready to see Voltron?” 

Really? Keith looked at mom in wonder. This is what Keith has wanted for years, ever since he began his training. Mom and dad had told him that when he was ready, he would be able to see Voltron. “I’m ready?” 

“You are more than ready Keith. I see great things for you in the future.” Mom’s praise warmed Keith’s heart. 

“Let’s go then,” Keith said. He could feel the smile that his mother gave before the two of them started off. The landscape soon turned familiar in the night sky. Keith grew up around here and knew the landscape off by heart and could navigate this area in his sleep. He jumped past familiar shapes until he and mom landed softly in front of the entrance of the caves. Excitement bubbled in his stomach. This was it. He was about to see what Voltron was. Keith has spent years imagining what it could be. He knew that it couldn’t be something ordinary like a gun or the sword that he held into. The blade in his hands, that once was held by his mother, was something of interest though. Each blade of Marmora held a blade once they had completed training. Once the blade had completed their training, the small knife that they held would grow into a full sized sword. Something that Keith was still waiting for. 

“Ready?” Mom asked. 

“As I will ever be.” Keith could barely contain his excitement. This was it. Time to see Voltron. 

“Aw look at him,” Dad teased, coming out of the mouth of the cave. He smiled fondly at Keith, crossing his arms with a hearty sigh. 

“Can you blame him? This is what we’ve been training him for.” Mom slipped past dad and into the cave. Keith hesitantly followed her, pausing next to his dad and staring at the dark cave. 

A strong clap on his shoulder coming out of the blue caused Keith to stumble forward. He turned back and glared at his dad. His dad grinned and went to ruffle Keith’s hair but Keith was still wearing his helmet. It was an action that was made in vain. “Just teasing you kiddo. I’m real proud of you.” 

“Thanks, dad.” 

“If you two are done with your bonding moment, we have to prepare for the threat of the Galra.” Mom’s voice echoed from deep within the caves. Dad rolled his eyes fondly but heeded mom’s warning and started into the cave. Keith paused for a moment. The excitement was so overwhelming that Keith had to stop walking to let it all sink in. He took in a deep breath and followed his dad’s path deep into the caves. On either side of him, carvings of crude lions decorated the walls. They were like the cave drawings that Keith learnt about when he was still in school. 

Expect these carvings weren’t like the ones that he’d seen. They looked older and in a way wiser. The eyes of the lions seem to follow Keith as he walked into the cave. 

“So what is Voltron?” Keith asked his mom when he finally caught up to her. 

She stepped aside and gestured with a hand to a smaller cave mouth. “Look for yourself,” she prompted. Dad stood on the other side of the entrance and looked at Keith with raised eyebrows. 

Keith ducked into the entrance and the second that his eyes fell onto Voltron, his mouth dropped open in wonder. “Whoa.” 

                                                                          ***

Lance was way over his head. After seeing Shiro’s crash landing and rescuing him, he, Hunk, and Pidge had taken Shiro to the one place that they knew would help them, his ex’s Adam. How Pidge knew where Adam lived, Lance didn’t want to know. With Adam half doting and half scolding Shiro, Shiro managed to tell them bits and pieces of what happened to him after his failed mission to Kerberos and what he could remember of his kidnappers.

The only thing that Shiro could remember was that these purple aliens were looking for a certain weapon. Something called Voltron. It had begun a tirade of science talk that Lance didn’t understand but it landed him in the middle of the desert with Hunk and Pidge on one side and his hero Shiro and Adam on the other side of him. 

“So where now?” Lance asked. 

Shiro frowned and looked across the barren landscape. “I’m not sure. Hunk?” 

“Uh well, the Geiger counter is getting pretty wild so it should be around here somewhere.” Hunk looked to his little device in his hands and then back up to the outcrop of cliffs that dominated their vision.

“If this Voltron is what the Galra are looking for, it wouldn’t be in plain view. There are caves around here would provide a good hiding spot.” Adam squinted at the entrance to a cave. 

“Yeah, let's go!” Pidge picked up the pace and headed for the caves. 

“Pidge, wait!” Hunk chased after him. Shiro and Adam followed them at a smaller pace leaving Lance alone. 

Lance threw up his arms at their backs. “I am the only one who thinks that this might be a bad idea?” No one heard him or if they did, they all ignored him. Lance wasn’t sure what was worse. Lance grumbled but followed them, casting curses in their general direction. Lance caught up to them at the entrance of the caves. 

“Whoa,” Hank trailed off, looking at the inside of the cave. 

“So what they’re just a bunch cave drawings,” Lance grumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets and peering at the carvings. They were sort of cool but Lance was annoyed. No one was listening to him and they didn’t seem to care that he didn’t want to go with them, thinking that this might be a bad idea.

“Come on Lance, don’t be so sour,” Pidge scolded him.

Lance rolled his eyes, right because Pidge was one to talk. He never hung out with Lance was always mister grumpy pants no matter what. Out of boredom, Lance reached a figure out to trace one of the carvings. He wasn’t expecting anything to happen so when the carvings turned bright blue it was understandable that he let out a yelp(a manly sounding yelp) and stumbled back. 

He continued to make strangled noises when the floor under him moved and dropped him. Dimly he could hear everyone else yelling. Water rushed around him, clogging up his senses. He couldn’t hear anything but the rush of water around him. He gagged on the water rushing into his mouth. Lance was moving way too fast to understand what was happening and where the tunnel ended and landed flat on his back. 

For a hot second, all Lance could compute was pain. He groaned and his legs landed on the ground with a thud. He blinked and noticed what was in front of him. Lance scrambled to get up, his eyes trained on the bright blue lion in front of him. “Whoa.” In a daze, Lance reached out to touch the big round glowing circle around the line. His daze was cut short when something sharp and metal sounding grazed past him and landed perfectly between Lance’s legs. He screamed in reflex and jumped back. Right into Hunk’s strong arms. 

Hunk stumbled back, surprised with the sudden weight in his arms all the while Lance was still screaming. 

“You okay Lance?” Adam asked. 

Still shaking, Lance pointed to the knife. Adam frowned and looked up, to stumbled back, pulling Shiro with him. A large human shape hurtled out of nowhere and landed in front of them. As the shape curled up, reaching it’s full(near seven feet **)** height, Lance’s terror skyrocketed. “Alien!” Hunk yelled, backing up rapidly and stumbling over a loose rock and both he and Lance fell over. 

When Lance got up, he saw that no one else had reacted the way that Hunk had, embarrassed that Hunk had done that, Lance puffed up his hoodie and stalked towards this alien.

“Lance,” Shiro warned, trying to stop Lance. But Lance wasn’t having it. 

He thrust a finger towards this masked alien “Now who do you--ack!” Lance’s retort was cut short as he was slammed to the ground by an unseen force. He groaned and collapsed onto the ground. When he dared to peek an eye open, he saw a smaller shape, dressed like the first alien and standing next to said alien. It was funny because this new guy(Gal? Person? Alien?) was like half the height of their buddy. Lance thought that he recognized the smaller one. He(them?) was the alien(person?) that Lance saw last night when they went to go rescue Shiro. 

At the time Lance had thought that the purple glow from the mask, those eerie, emotionless, looming circles staring at him. Lance just thought that was it was a figment of his imagination. Apparently not.   

“We come in peace,” Shiro tried to placate the alien duo and stepping in front of Lance. Adam had pushed Pidge behind him and from Lance’s angle, he could see the little gremlin peeking out from behind Adam. 

The tall alien looked over to Shiro and seemed to be zeroing in on his(radical looking) prosthetic. “That is Galran technology.” Their voice was disorientated and mechanical sounding. “How did you acquire it?” 

There was silence in the caves. “You know who took me?” Shiro asked. Adam’s face paled and Lance couldn’t see Hunk or Pidge’s reactions. 

“Who was the commanding officer of the ship that took you? How did you find out about Voltron? Do the Galra know where the lion is being held?” The questions didn’t stop. 

“How do you know about the Galra?” Shiro asked. 

That wasn’t the answer that the two aliens(were they actually aliens?) wanted. The smaller one reached behind them and pulled out a knife. Lance wanted to laugh at how small knife was but he was terrified. “Answer the questions.” 

“Who are you?” Adam snapped. He wasn’t talking to lightly at his ex-boyfriend being threatened. The small dude went after the alien but the other one held him back. 

They stepped forward and on instinct, all of them took a step back. They reached up and took off the mask. Lance did a double take. He scrambled to get up and grinned at the lady. She was hot. For a weird space lady. He definitely liked the matching purple skin with those slightly darker markings on her face and eyes and her cute little bob. “Hey, how you doing? Name’s Lance.” Lance gave her, his signature grin. 

Her partner moved to strike Lance again but she stopped that plan by putting an arm out. She looked Shiro dead in the eyes. It was important to note that Shiro had gone deathly white. “My name is Krolia and I have been tasked to make sure that the blue lion of Voltron never falls into the hands of the Galran Empire.” Her voice was nothing like what it had been from under the mask.

“You’re a Galran,” Shiro squeaked. 

The caves were silent. Lance didn’t know how to process it. So she was an alien. So aliens are real. She was apart of an alien race that kidnapped his hero and tortured him. Oh okay.

“I am,” Krola said gravely. “But I oppose Zarkon and his followers. I have been fighting against him for years and will continue to do so until the day I die.” 

“Noted,” Pidge piped up, adjusting his glasses. Krolia looked over to him and sized him up. The guy was pretty tiny so Lance felt the need to protect Pidge, despite not being super close to the guy. 

“How are we supposed to trust you? You are the reason why Shiro and the rest of the crew of the Kerberos mission were kidnapped. The rest of the crew didn’t make it through.” Adam put himself between Krolia and Shiro and glared up at the very terrifying alien.

Behind him, Lance could feel Hunk shaking in fear. Lance shook off Hunk’s hands and looked back to the scene in front of them. Krolia had to restrain her partner who was trying to get at Adam. “Keith no,” she ordered. The guy went limp in her arms and despite the mask, Lance could feel the glare radiating off of him. 

“Your name’s Keith?” Lance demanded. Behind him, Hunk sighed and probably shook his head. 

The small dude glared at Lance. “So?” Like Krolia, his voice was disoriented and masked by Keith’s mask.  

“You’re this crazy ass alien and you’re name’s Keith?” Lance’s voice rose in pitch. 

Keith paused and looked back to Krolia and the two of them had a silent conversation. Keith sighed and pulled off his helmet. Revealing not what Lance was expecting. “You’re human,” Hunk noted. 

“So?” Keith snapped. 

“Nothing wrong with that.” Hunk held up his hands in surrender. 

“Don’t talk to Hunk like that,” Lance snapped at Keith. 

“What are you going to do? Hun?” Keith challenged Lance. Oh boy, Lance was just getting started.

“Try me you two-bit mullet wearing asshole.” Lance got into Keith’s face(he basked in the glow of knowing that he was taller than Keith). Also, he couldn’t believe that someone in this day and age had a mullet! 

“Keith,” Krolia snapped. 

Reluctantly Keith backed off and slunk back to Krolia’s side. He glared at Lance from Krolia’s side. 

“How can we trust you. You’re Galran.” Adam crossed his arms and continued to glare at Krolia. 

Krolia took a step back and gestured to the lion. “I have been on Earth for nearly eighteen years. Not once have I alerted Zarkon or his forces to the lion’s location. I am here to stop Zarkon from conquering the rest of the known universe.” 

“So what’s the deal with this lion? Why couldn’t have you piloted this yourself and stop Zarkon?” Pidge asked. 

“The lion opens only to its pilot. All three of us have tried to gain access to the lion but we have all been denied entry. If I could use the lion to stop Zarkon once and for all, I would but alas I cannot.” Krolia gazed sadly at the lion in front of her.  

“Wait wait wait wait, the three of you?” Lance demanded.

Both Keith and Krolia looked over their shoulder, gazing into the darkness. Out of the darkness came a man with a duffle bag through over his shoulder. He looked human but right now Lance couldn’t dismiss anything. Aliens exist apparently. “Howdy all.” The human saluted them when he stopped next to Keith. 

Lance held back his laughter because Keith was even tinier than both of his partners. Still didn’t make him any less terrifying.  

“This is Tex, he has been helping us to protect the blue lion,” Krolia introduced them. Lance noticed the look that Tex gave Krolia. He had the hots for the hot alien lady. Not that Lance didn’t blame the guy. Krolia pretty hot. 

“So what now?” Pidge asked, gazing up at the blue lion. 

“You have been lead to the blue lion for a reason. One of you must her pilot. You are all welcome to try to ask access.” Krolia took a step to the side, giving them access.

Lance sniffled indignantly and took a step forward, shoving his hands once again in his pockets. “Have you guys tried knocking?”    


Behind Krolia, Keith snorted. “Duh, that was the first thing that we tried.” Keith crossed his arms, content to watch Lance fail. You know what? Just for that Lance was going to prove Keith wrong. So Lance could shove it in that mullet-wearing asshole’s face.b


	2. Chapter 2

Keith watched from between his parents as this idiot walked up to the lion. He scoffed and crossed his arms, there was no way that he would be the pilot for the blue lion. The greatest weapon in the universe would have higher standards than this Garrison recruit. Right? Keith forced himself to watch as Lance lumbered his way up to the humming particle barrier. All of the eyes on were on Lance. Keith kind of hoped that Lance would fail and one of the others would be the pilot. 

Lance reached out and knocked. For a second Keith smirked because nothing happened. Lance’s face dropped but before Keith could do anything he was blasted with a vision. Keith saw the blue lion zoom past him. But in this vision, there were more and they zoomed together and formed a huge robot lion. 

Growing up with an alien for a mother, Keith’s seen a lot of interesting and dope looking things but this was the coolest things he’s seen.

Without thinking about what he was doing, Keith let out a little gasp and stepped forward, reaching out to touch the lion. Behind him, he heard the big guy let out a dramatic gasp. 

“Uh, did everyone just see that? Or am I going nuts?” 

“Voltron is a robot! Voltron is a huge,  _ huge, _ awesome robot!” The big guy gushed, dancing around behind Lance. 

“And this is only one part of it! I wonder where the rest of them are.” The little one with the giant glasses gazed up at the blue lion. Keith crossed his arms, unwilling admit to the rest of the group that he wondered the same thing. 

“I have always wondered what Voltron looked fully formed.” Mom gazed at the blue lion in wonder. 

“No wonder the Galra are looking for this. It’s amazing.” Shiro looked sadly at the lion. Shouldn’t he be excited for this? A weapon to bring down Zarkon and finally put an end to the

“Incredible.” Adam looked like he was going to burst out in glee over the technology. Dad and mom didn’t look as impressed as the rest of the earth crew, due to them being around alien technology for an extended period of time. Or in mom’s case, all of her life. 

Suddenly the blue lion roared and lowered her head, opening her mouth for them to climb in. The little one with the big glasses squeaked and stumbled back into the big one’s arms. Keith still didn’t know their names. He only knew Shiro’s and Lance’s. Who was the tall guy with the glasses? He wasn’t there last night. 

Lance didn’t seem to seem to care as he bounded up the steps. Hesitantly the others followed him into the lion. Everyone except mom. “What’s wrong?” Keith asked. 

Mom sighed and shook her head. “I am not welcome here. Where ever the lion is going to take you, I know that I, because of who I am not going to receive pleasant greetings. I should not go, so I am not.”    
  


“What? No. You have to come, mom. I’ll fight anyone who thinks otherwise. Please don’t leave me.” Keith pleaded with his mom. HIs stomach filled dread. He didn’t want his mom to leave him. She’s his mom, she can’t leave him. If something happened to her and she was in space without him, she could die, Keith could die, dad could die and no one would know because they were in space. Keith didn’t want to go to space if she wasn’t going to go with him. 

“Don’t worry Keith.” Mom put a reassuring hand on Keith’s shoulder. “I will see you again soon, do not worry.” 

“Where are you going to go?”

“I am going to find the other Blades of Marmora. Times are changing and we are going to need all of the help that we can get. I have fallen out of touch with the rest of the blades in my goal of protecting the blue lion. We are going to need their help.”

Keith’s eyes watered and he looked down to avoid crying in front of both of his parents. He sniffled and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “What about you, dad?” Keith’s voice trembled as he gazed up at his dad, afraid that he was going to leave Keith as well. 

“It’s going to take a lot more to get rid of me, son.” Dad slapped a hand against Keith’s shoulder and grinned as Keith stumbled forward. Keith grumbled and stood up, glaring half-heartedly at his dad. 

Mom smiled and picked up the knife that was embedded in the ground and pressed into Keith’s hands. “Remember Keith, I will always be with you.” 

Keith nodded, still trying not to cry. “Goodbye, mom.” 

“Goodbye Keith.” Mom dropped Keith’s hands and headed to the entrance of the cave. Keith sighed and watched as mom disappeared. 

“Come on kiddo.” Dad pushed Keith to the entrance of the lion. Keith looked over his shoulder once more, just hoping that he could see one glimpse of her but she was already long gone. Keith dropped his head in sadness as he followed dad into the cockpit. 

“So where’d the hot alien lady go?” Lance asked, leaning over and giving them a quizzical eyebrow. 

“Speak about my mom like that again and I’ll shove my knife into your back,” Keith growled, showing Lance his knife. He twirled it back and gave Lance a dark smile. Lance visibly gulped. Good, never talk about his mom about that. Dad put a warning hand on Keith’s shoulder, so Keith wouldn’t attack Lance. 

“Your mom?” The big guy asked nervously. 

“Hunk!” Lance snapped. In the corner of the cockpit, Shiro sighed and put his face in his hand. Adam gently patted his back and looked amused in at the scene in front of her. 

“Yeah my mom, you got a problem with it?” Keith demanded. The hand on his shoulder got tighter. Keith ignored it and challenged Lance. There was something that about the guy that annoyed the hell out of Keith. He acted like he couldn’t have a care in the world. Just that idea annoyed Keith. That was not the way to go out into the world. That sort of attitude played with people’s emotions and got them hurt.

“No,” Lance drew the word out. His eyes slid past Keith and onto dad. “So does that make you his dad? If so, dude that totally makes you a furry.” 

Keith looked over at his father. His father smirked and just gave Lance a wink. Keith heard the strangled gasp and looked over to Lance. Lance looked horrified. The little one with the glasses didn’t look amused and neither did Hunk. Hunk actually looked a little nervous.

“Ok guys, I feel the need to point out, just so we’re all on the same page, we are standing in some kind of futuristic alien cat head at this very moment.” Hunk looked around the group. Keith shrugged, this wasn’t the craziest thing he’s been in. He’s grown up piloting mom’s Galra fighter ship. The little one with the glasses was looking at the console in interest. Shiro and his friend didn’t look all too nervous. Shiro must be used to it by now, due to him being on a Galran cruiser for some time and his friend just seemed to go along with the world threw at him. 

Lance turned back to the glowing console. “Whoa, did you guys just hear that?” Lance looked like he’d entered a daze and he reached out to touch the glowing aura surrounding him.

“Hear what?” Keith asked dryly.

“I think it’s talking to me? Um hmm,” Lance frowned at the scene in front of him. He pressed a few buttons and the lion threw his head back and roared. The little one with the glasses and Hunk grabbed onto each other. “Okay. Got it, now let’s try this.” Now like a dick, Lance smashed through the walls, ricocheting around and spinning and just acting a general dick. Keith’s ears screamed in pain with the sounds of the other’s screaming. 

Keith grounded his teeth and tried to stay on his feet. “You. Are. The. Worst. Pilot. Ever!” Keith bit his tongue trying not to hurl. He groaned and ducked his head. 

“Isn’t this awesome?” Lance seemed to be the only who seemed excited. 

“Make it stop! Make it stop!” Hunk yelled at Lance. Please, Keith begged Lance. Please stop acting a complete idiot while piloting a super expensive and really important alien aircraft.  

“I’m not making it do anything. It’s kind of like it’s on autopilot!” Lance was cackling with glee. He tried to howl like a coyote but it fell flat a couple of tones. Behind Keith, dad fell over due to losing his footing and had trouble regaining it.  Keith nearly fell into his dad when the lion shot into a sky.

“Where the fuck are you taking us?” Keith yelled at Lance. 

“I just said that it’s on autopilot! Can’t you listen mullet head? The lion says that’s there’s an alien ship approaching Earth. It wants us to stop it!” Lance yelled at them, clearly annoyed at him. 

“What did it say, exactly?” The tall one with the glasses asked. 

“Well it’s not like it’s saying _ words _ guys, it’s more like feeding ideas into my _ brain _ . Kind of. It’s hard to explain!” Lance yelled back. 

“If this thing is the weapon that they’re coming for, why don’t we just, like--- I dunno, give it to them? Maybe they’ll leave us alone. Sorry, lion, it’s nothing personal.” Hunk patted the side of the lion. 

That was the worst idea ever. “You don’t understand. The Galra are hell-bent on taken over the entire universe. We give the lion over to the Galra and we destroy what Krolia, Keith and I have been working to protect and y’all destroy any chance that the universe has to free themselves of Zarkon,” Dad snapped at Hunk. 

“Tex is right. There’s no bargaining with them. They won’t stop until everything is dead.” Shiro finally spoke up from his position against the window. Keith glanced at the twined hands of him and the tall one with the glasses and looked away. If it wasn’t important to the mission then he didn’t care. 

“...Oh. Never mind then,” Hunk muttered, pitting his two index fingers together and looking sheepish.

The blue lion shot itself out of the earth’s atmosphere and Keith took a second to admire space. No wonder Shiro was drawn to space. It was beautiful and calming. Keith could spend eternity up here. Away from the noise of real life. It seemed peaceful. The kind of peacefulness that he could never achieve on earth. But the silence was shattered. In the distance, Keith could see a ship looming towards them. 

It’s purple hull glowing menacingly at them. The Galra. Keith narrowed his eyes and his hand wandered down to his sheathed knife. “Uh…. _ Holy fucking Shit!  _ Is that really an alien ship?” Hunk yelled.

Dad sighed. “Unfortunately yes.”

“They found me.” Shiro looked like he was going to cry. The tall one with the glasses(Keith really needed to learn the glasses gang’s names, he couldn’t keep referring to them as tall or short) sighed and dug his head into the crook of Shiro’s neck. Shiro squeezed his boyfriend(?)’s hand and looked defeated. 

“We have to get out here!” The short one with the glasses grabbed Lance and shook him. 

“Get off.” Lance shook his(her?) hand’s off of him and returned to attempting to pilot “Hang on. Ok, ok, ok, I think I know what to do!” 

“Be careful, Lance this isn’t a simulator,” the tall glasses guy warned Lance. 

“Well thank god Adam it isn’t, I always wreck the simulator!” Lance looked gleeful. Why is he looking gleeful? That is not something that Lance should be gleeful about. He couldn’t fly in a simulator why was he flying a super important alien weapon? “Let’s try this.”  Keith worryingly watched as Lance smashed random buttons. Out of the blue, there was a burst of bright, almost white blue energy that sent Keith stumbling back into his dad and then went stumbling into the little one with the glasses. The claws from the lion scraped against the hull of the ship and Keith winced at the sound but was grateful when they were able to tear free from the ship’s side. 

“Nice job, Lance!” Shiro praised Lance’s efforts. Lance's face flushed with pride as he turned back to piloting the lion.

“Thanks, Shiro! Now let’s get these assholes out of here!” Lance gunned the ship into space away from Earth. Behind him, Keith heard his dad groan at Lance’s erratic flying. Dad’s never been a fan of flying in general and this certainly wasn’t helping his case. 

Keith looked over to the fading Earth, trying to see if he could catch a glimpse of mom’s small fighter ship one last time. He didn’t. Sadly, Keith turned back to the stars in front of him. 

Beside him, Hunk gasped. “Oh, no!” Keith looked behind him again and saw that the cruiser was gaining on the group. 

“They’re gaining on us!” The little one with the glasses yelled. 

“It’s weird. They aren’t trying to shoot at us. I think that they’re just chasing.” Lance leaned forward and squinted at the Galra cruiser. 

“Ok, seriously? Now we think that having aliens following us is good? I’m not on board with the new direction, guys.” Hunk whimpered. While it wasn’t good that the Galra were chasing them, it was better than having them shooting at them. At least when they’re just chasing them, they have the chance of outrunning them and getting away intact. 

As Keith looked over the stars, he realized he didn’t know where in the solar system they were. “Uh, where are we?” Keith asked. 

“Edge of the solar system. See that satellite there? That’s Kerberos.” Shiro pointed to the small hunk of rock that was just floating in the middle of nowhere. It wasn’t too impressive looking, to be honest. It didn’t look like a moon. 

“It takes  _ months  _ for our ships to get out this far. We got out here in five seconds. How?” The little one demanded. Now that Keith thought of it, the kid looked familiar but again, he couldn’t place where he thought he knew this kid. They certainly didn’t go to school together.  

The blue lion seemed to enjoy causing Keith to go blind for a few seconds because for the second time there was a bright white light and what be described as a spinning vortex with strange runes around it. As Keith’s mind eloquently put it,  _ what the fuck was that?  _

“What is that?” Hunk asked. 

“Uh, I know that this going to sound a little crazy-” Great. “But I think that the lion wants us to go through there.” 

Keith looked behind his shoulder to his dad. He was the adult here, what did he think of this? Dad’s face at first was free of emotion. But as Keith looked longer, he could see his clenched jaw and scared eyes. They needed to go through. 

“Where does it go?” Both Adam and the little one with the glasses asked at the same time. 

“I don’t know Pidge. Shiro, you’re the senior officer and the one with the most experience here. What should we do?” Lance’s usual swagger that Keith has grown used to, was gone. Maybe he was overthinking this but maybe Lance used over exaggerated loudness as a mask? Or has Keith been away from human civilization for so long that he didn’t understand people anymore? 

“Whatever’s happening, the lion knows more than we do. I say we trust it. But we’re a team now. We should decide together. What do you guys think?” Shiro looked around the silent cockpit. No one spoke up.  

“I agree with Shiro. The lion and Voltron know what they’re doien.” Dad popped out of the blue.

“All right. Guess we’re all ditching class tomorrow.” Lance pushed the lion’s control’s and the lion crept closer to the wormhole. Keith steaded himself for whatever the fuck the wormhole was going to do for him. 

Surprisingly it wasn’t that bad. It kind of felt like he was on a roller coaster. With his stomach rolling around feverishly and he only felt like throwing up for a few seconds. That was nice. But when the lion threw itself out of the wormhole, Keith was disorientated and his head spun. He searched for a grounding point in the scenery around him but he couldn’t find anything. With his throat closing in around him, Keith panicked trying to force himself to calm down. That didn’t work. Actually, it made it worse. To avoid anyone noticing that he was falling apart, Keith held his breath, trying to stop his pounding heart. Keith felt a hand on his shoulder and looked behind him. Dad gave him a reassuring smile, one that told Keith that he was there for him. Keith smiled back, his pounding heart fading to a quick, exciting tap against his chest. 

“Whoa. That was…” Lance trailed off, his eyes still glazed. Keith took a look around the cockpit. Pidge, Shiro, and Adam were stunned into silence. Hun, on the other hand, was not. 

Hunk rushed past Keith and his dad and vomit. Keith cringed and took a step away from Hunk. “So sorry----” Hunk apologized and then vomited again. 

“You okay there cowboy?” Dad asked, crouching next to Hunk and putting a comforting hand on Hunk’s back. Hunk looked to dad and nodded. Keith grumbled internally and crossed his arms. He glared at Hunk, for occupying his father’s attention. 

“I’m just surprised that it took this long.” Pidge barely spared a glance at Hunk, adjusting his(her? Their? Keith couldn’t really guess Pidge’s gender and their name didn’t help him with guessing their gender. Who named their kid Pidge? It sounded like something that someone would name their dog.) glasses and looked back to the stars gleaming in the window of the cockpit. 

“I don’t recognize any of these constellations. I don’t think that we’re in the Milky Way galaxy anymore.” Adam’s face was inches away from the glass of the windshield. Yeah, no shit dude. Keith felt like he should be nice to these guys, they did just learn about aliens and the galra but could Adam be any more obvious? 

“The Lion seems to want to go to this planet. I think… I think it’s going to home.” Lance’s voice turned soft and there was something in the tone of his voice that Keith connected with. This was his destiny. He knew that he’s known that since he was little but he missed his family’s little cabin in the desert. It was so cold here. Keith wasn’t accustomed to the cold, he grew up in the heat for fuck sakes. 

As the lion powered towards the surface of the planet, everyone started squeezing around the pilot's seat thanks to the intense turbulence that shook them when they entered the atmosphere of the planet. 

“Guy, personal space! Hunk, seriously your breath is killing me.” Lance elbowed his friend away from the pilot’s seat. 

“Um is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious wormhole and why are we listening to a robotic lion anyways?” It seemed that Hunk was going down this road. Again. 

“It got us away from that alien warship, didn’t it?” Lance defended his new friend. If he kept going at this rate, he wasn’t going to have many friends left. Keith may be annoyed with the rest of the group but he didn’t use that tone of voice, much.” 

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed Lance, but we’re  _ in  _ an alien warship,” Keith snapped at the lanky latino. 

“Oh, you scared?” Lance scoffed at Keith. 

“With you at the helm? Terrified.” Keith accepted the challenge and was ready to fight Lance. He didn’t really know what it was about Lance but he wanted to fight the guy. 

“Knock it off.” Shiro tried to break the two of them up but failed because both Keith and Lance ignored him and were ready to fight each other. 

“Hey, now is not the time for usen them fighten words. As of the moment that ya stepped onto the lion, Y'all accepted that you were gunna become fighters for Voltron. Partners don’t fight each other.” Dad yanked Keith back and stepped in between him and Lance. “Now shut the fuck up and listen to y’alls commanding officer.”

Keith glared at Lance from behind his father’s back but eventually relented and looked over to Shiro who looked quite embarrassed at the sudden outburst. “Uh thank you, Tex.” Shiro looked awkwardly to dad. Dad just shrugged and stood beside Keith, copying his posture. “Look no one’s happy to be in this situation, but we’re here now. If we want to get through this, we’ve got to do this together.” Shiro ended his little speech and looked over at Adam with some complicated emotion in his eyes. Adam had the same look in his eyes. 

Adam took Shiro’s hand and gave him a comforting smile. “Shiro’s right. As much as we don’t like this situation, we’re here now. We adapt to our situation and overcome.” 

“So what do we do now?” Pidge asked. 

“First we find out where we’re headed. Lance?” Shiro looked at Lance who had shrunken down in the seat after being scolded by dad. Ha, serves him right. 

"I don't know. I'm sorry. The Lion's not talking to me anymore. ... Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Shh! Listen. I think I hear something." Lance said. They all inched closer. 

“I’m hearing it, too. Keith frowned and trying to figure out what the high-pitch squeal was. 

“It’s, uh--kind of-- a high pitched squeal?” HUnk asked, looking around the cockpit of the lion. 

Lance looked like he was going to burst out in glee when he let out a disgusting fart. “Come on, Lance,” Keith said as the same time as Shiro, Hunk and Adam. Lance cackled at their disgusted looks. Pidge elbowed Lance and shot him a glare. 

“Just kidding, but seriously, there’s a Castle up ahead.” Lance jutted his chin out to the castle protruding from the clouds. 

From his vantage point up in the sky Keith could see the tall white gleaming towers etched with glittering gold and silver. It lived on another level than all of the castles on Earth. It was gorgeous. Keith stared in awe at the castle as the lion reached the castle and it lit up with the same blue energy as the lion. The lion landed gracefully in front of the castle. “Wow.” Keith let the little word slip out. 

“Keep your guard up,” Shiro warned the group. 

“Something wrong?” Adam asked, putting a hand on Shiro’s shoulder.

“My crew was captured by aliens once. I am not going to let it happen again.” Shiro had a look of apprehension on his face as he looked at the seemingly innocent castle but Keith knew enough about castles back on Earth to know that there was nothing innocent about castles. They always hid something from the world inside their big walls and pointy roofs. 

Keith followed the rest of the crew out of the lion and onto the worn steps leading to the entrance of the castle. Behind the lion stood up, nearly scaring the shit out of Keith. He stumbled back and grabbed his knife as the lion opened its jaw and roared. “Oh no! Oh no! I knew it was going to eat us! No!” Hunk screamed and hid behind dad. Dad spared Hunk an amused glance but looked back to the lion. There was a rumbling and Keith spun around again and the doors rumbled open. “Oh, the door is open. Guess I was wrong about you.” Hunk looked back to the lion. The lion didn’t respond. 

The walked into the silent front hall of the castle. It was near pitch black inside the cold halls. The castle’s halls looked like it hasn’t been used in a long, long time. 

“Helllooo?” Hunk drew out of the word as he looked around the dark halls. 

Pidge looked at the stairs in front of them. Why were they so interested in stairs? “You know from the side of the lion, I expected the steps to be bigger,” they commented idly. 

“The lion is a ship, not the commander of the castle.” Keith rolled his eyes at Pidge. 

They walked to a lower floor with the lights off, and like a chiché a single bean actives shining a light onto the control panel. Everyone around him gasped. “Please hold for identity scan.” The computer’s voice was cool and void anything that would have to do with emotion. 

“What?” Pidge asked, squinting and shuffling around, looking for the voice. 

“Why are we here? What do you want with us?” Shiro asked the computer. 

Keith blinked at the sudden harshness when the lights suddenly switched on. That was sudden and really annoying. “Whoa.” Lance and Pidge said at the same time. The blinding white lights lit a path down a set of stairs. He didn’t want to go down there. That’s how people died in horror movies. But since Keith was of age and of the cusp of becoming a Blade of Marmora, he had to go down there and figure out what the hell was going on down there. “I guess we’re going that way.” Pidge tilted their head and took a small step forward. Pidge didn’t want to go first. 

Shiro and Keith led the pack down the steps. Each step more lights lit up and lead them deeper inside the castle and Keith was getting more and more ready to bolt the fuck out of there. No thanks. But one look over to Lance saw that he was standing strong and Keith was not going to let this kid out not-terrify him. “Hello?... Hellooo?” Hunk’s voices echoed into the darkness. “Hello?” Hunk repeated himself when they came into this weird room with grey, mechanical looking circles on the ground.  

This was not a room Keith wanted to be in. It gave him H.H Holmes vibes. 

“Where are we?” Adam asked. 

“It’s spookie looking. I’m not the biggest fan tbh.” Lance wandered around the room with his arms drawn tight around his chest. For a quick second Keith understand and sympathized with Lance. 

“It’s some kind of control room.” Pidge poked the little table in front of them. The console beeped and suddenly there was a rush of steam and two pods rose from the floor. Keith backed the hell up and bared his teeth. There was nothing good going to come from this. 

“Uh, are these guys dead?” Hunk asked. 

One of the pods opened and a young woman with silver hair and dark hair stumbled out. “Father!”  

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry for the absence. I got distracted by school work and relationship drama, so here's a chapter for y'all. If you guys want to come chit-chat with me, you can reach me on tumblr @huff-le-punk. Also drop me a comment!

Keith watched as Lance move to catch the girl who had just appeared out of the blue. Dad sucked in a breath when he saw the girl. It was sad to see how war could affect everyone around it. How old was this girl? She looked young, around Keith’s age. But then again she was an alien and her ageing process could be entirely different from his own. He didn’t even know what the ageing process for Galra’s was supposed to be. Why had she been in the pod until now? 

He watched as Lance try and go for what Lance hoped was a suave persona and Lance half succeeded. "Hello." Lance drew out the last few vowels. The tops of Keiths ears went red as he crossed his arms, glaring at the ground. What business did Lance have acting like that to this girl? Keith’s glares get even harder when she gave him a sort of an ethereal, dazed look.  

"Who are you? Where am I?" The girl demanded, shattering that soft vibe. 

“I’m Lance and you’re right here in my arms.” Lance wiggled his eyebrows and he attempted a flirtatious tone that nearly made Keith laugh. There was one thing that Keith could appreciate was that Lance was quick on his feet and adapted to his situation. 

Adapting to situations that come out of the blue was a skill that Keith had difficulty with. He tended to get panicky and do something rash. 

“Your… ears.” The girl squinted in confusion at Lance. Keith ran his hand over his ears at the mention of ears. He’s inherited more or less mom’s ears and made them a little pointy. A fact that his classmates picked up quite gladly when they were younger. He was glad that he was gone from those people. 

“Yeah?” Lance’s flirtatious tone was disappearing and replaced with a confused one. 

“They’re hideous. What’s wrong with them?” At the girl’s next comment, Keith couldn’t help it but he laughed. He smothered a second later when dad nudged him painfully and Lance shot him a glare. 

“Nothing’s wrong with them! They heard exactly what you said about them!” Lance snapped, his face growing red. 

Keith watched as the girl reached up to what he thought was going to touch them but she grabbed them and slammed him into a restraining hold. Lance yelped in fear. “Who are you? Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in my castle?” Her voice was thundering and terrifying. 

“A giant blue lion brought us here! That’s all we know!” Lance yelped out. 

"How do you have the Blue Lion? What happened to its Paladin? What are you all doing here? Unless... How long has it been?" She looked around the room. Fear rippled across her face and she suddenly looked a lot younger. 

Dad took a tentative step closer to her, his hands up in surrender. Her face hardened as she stared at him. Keith nervously reached for his knife. She looked like she was going to put dad in a choke hold. “Ma name’s Tex. With me is my son Keith. His mother came to earth along time ago and we stumbled across the lion. As far as we know the blue lion has been hidden for years. I don’t wanna alarm ya sugar but I think its been a long while.” 

“Why don’t you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help,” Shiro offered. 

The girl let go of Lance, he stumbled forward. Keith took a step forward to help Lance up but Lance glared at him, crossing his arm and sticking his nose up. Fine then, Keith won’t help him the next time a strong and slightly terrifying woman puts him a restraining hold. 

She stuttered over to consol that Pidge was still trying to figure out. "I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea. I've got to find out where we are and how long we've been asleep." Allura stated as the walls around them flickered to life with the same blue lights that the lion emitted. They definitely made by the same thing. 

"Okay, that's how that works." Pidge gazed in awe at Allura and the lights around her. 

The sound of a second pod opened and a second person stumbled out. Keith was in awe of this guy’s vividly red hair. He gasped at the sight of Lance(something that Keith would do too) and stumbled back. “E-Enemy combatants!” 

The guy jumped towards Lance but Lance easily side-steps him, so the guy lost his balance and stumble and almost fell over. Keith rolled his eyes and turned back to Allura. What she was doing seemed so much more interesting than the play fighting that Lance and this new guy. But they were loudmouths and couldn’t be completely ignored. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lance and the guy do rudimentary karate and weird poking fights. 

“Man, these guys are good,” Hunk murmured.

Keith gave him a weird look. Was he talking about Lance and the ginger guy? Or was he talking about Allura and the whole alien idea? For the second part, Keith agreed. This technology, the lion was amazing. The Galra was impressive but didn’t reach the sheer magnitude of the gloriousness of Voltron.

“It can’t be…” Allura stared at the glowing symbols around her. Keith snapped out of his daze and rose an eyebrow at her. 

“What is it?” The ginger man asked.   

“We’ve been asleep for ten thousand years.” Alura’s brave facade was gone. Her mouth wobbled and her tears made her blue eyes seem even brighter.  "Planet Altea  and all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed.  Cora n , Father is gone. Our entire civilization..." Allura had difficulty keeping it together. 

Dad took a step up to the console and put a comforting hand on Allura’s shoulder. The message was loud and clear. Dad was there for her and well it kind of seemed that she needed someone to help her and Coran. Allura gave him a wary look and Keith’s stomach churned. He was lucky. He was super lucky that he still had his parents. From this day on, he wasn’t going to take advantage of that. He was going to be thankful every day. “Oh, Allura.” Coran took a step closer to her. 

“I’m fine.” Allura brushed off dad’s hand. She looked to the flickering lights of the glowing computer. The blue of the lights made her look older than she actually looked. "Planet Altea and all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed. Coran, Father is gone. Our entire civilization…” Her defeated look turned to look of anger. This was something that Keith could get with. Anger could be good. “Zarkon!"

At the mention of the emperor, dad looked over to Keith in reflex. How would Allura, and Coran take the fact that  Keith was half Galran, half of the race that destroyed their civilization? Dad’s look made sure they get the message that Keith was to not bring up anything about his heritage around these two. Hopefully, the others wouldn’t think to bring up that mom was a Galran. Now that Keith thought about it, it was probably a good thing that mom didn’t come with them. The situation would have turned sour very quickly. 

"Zarkon...?" Shiro stared at his hands' uncertainty like he knew the name. Keith wouldn’t be surprised, he was a captive for the Galran empire and the Galran’s soldiers were all for praising their leader.  

"He was the King of the Galra. A vile creature and enemy to all free people."

That couldn’t be right, Zarkon was alive right now. There was no way that he could have been alive over ten thousand years ago. Maybe it was a different guy with the same name. Like Zarkon the second? God knows that humans do it enough. Look at all of King Louis’ from France.  

"I remember now… I was his prisoner." Adam took Shiro’s human and squeezed it. Shiro gave Adam a small little smile. Dare, Keith think that they were gay? They certainly acted like a couple. 

"He's still alive? Impossible!" Allura looked over to Coran in shock and then back to Shiro. The rest of the room was silent. It was so silent that a pin could drop and everyone could hear it. 

"I can't explain it, but it's true. He's searching for a superweapon called Voltron."

“It’s not.” Keith was going to regret sticking up for Shiro and he was right. He immediately did as soon as everyone looked over to him. All of their gazes made Keith’s skin crawl and of course, Dad’s withering look didn’t make this situation more pleasant. “Look, I don’t know much, this Zarkon could be another Zarkon but Shiro’s right. The current emperor of the Galran empire is a guy named Zarkon.” 

Allura drew herself up to her full height and toward over Keith(which was totally unfair. Both of his parents were tall! Where the hell did he get these short genes?) and glared at him. Her glare didn’t have much of an effect on him. A bit of an after effect of growing up with pretty much a drill sergeant for a mom. “And how would you know this?” 

“I don’t know much more than the bare minimum, I’m kinda just a trainee but my mom, she’s apart of this rebels group that is trying to stop Zarkon. She was pretty much stationed on Earth to make sure that the lion doesn’t fall into the empire’s hands. I grew up with this sort of thing and I grew up helping her.” 

“Keith’s right. It’s how I met Krolia. Her ship crashed when she took down scouts looken for the lion.” Dad piped up. Out of the corner of Keith’s eye, he saw Lance shoot up, rod tight and he had that annoying but slightly endearing smirk on his face. Keith didn’t know if he wanted it gone or not. 

Allura’s burning gaze switched from Keith to his dad. Keith let himself relax a little bit now that she wasn’t staring daggers at him. "And where is this Krolia now?” 

“Mom decided not to with us. She thought that she should try and reach other the rebels. She told me that she would reach out when she’s made contact with them.” Keith’s hand brushed against the communicator that was hidden in a hidden pocket in his suit. He ignored the rush of sadness that came when talking about when mom left. He understood why she left but it still hurt to think about it. Allura switched her look back to Keith once again and Keith wanted to bolt out there. 

Keith couldn’t quite read Allura’s face and it got more unsettling. She couldn’t tell that mom was a Galra, could she? Keith didn’t think that he dropped anything that could tell her that mom was a Galra. Allura sighed and looked away. She shook her head. “The reason why Zarkon is searching for the lions of Voltron because he knows it's the only thing that can defeat him, and that's exactly why we must find it before he does. Luckily we have an advantage.” She stepped off her little platform with a huff and brushed past them. “If you would so kindly give me a minute to collect myself?”

“Of course darlin. Take your time.” Dad gave her a little nod as Allura left. 

“What now?” PIdge adjusted their glasses and looked at dad and Shiro. 

“We should wait for Allura to get back. It sounds like she’s in charge here?” Shiro looked over to Coran who gave them a little bit of a nod of confirmation. “Take a breather guys. Let’s just try to adapt to the situation.” 

Keith shrugged and plopped down. He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. It was a whole body sigh that just seemed to let out the tension everywhere. It felt wonderful to be able to let out his tears and frustration. Except he wasn’t crying. He refused to cry in front of these random-ass people. 

“You know this place is pretty snazzy looking.” Hunk peered around the room. 

“I know right? This tech is years ahead of us. Just one thing could boost Earth’s tech. It’s amazing.” Pidge and Hunk started rambling on with each other. They were the only ones talking. Lance just seemed to be content with shoving his hands in his pockets and just gazing. Coran had disappeared with no one even noticing. Sneaky old guy. As Keith survived the room, he caught dad’s tired eye. Keith matched his smile but neither of their smiles really reached their eyes. Keith was fucking terrified. Despite all of his training, the years of preparing to take the fight to Zarkon, living with mom, hasn’t been able to actually one hundred percent prepare him for this. Keith wondered how dad was feeling. Probably something like this. 

The doors hissed open and Allura came striding back in. There was absolutely no trace of sadness anywhere on her face. The only hint that she had emotions was the burning rage in her eyes. “Sorry about that for everyone.” Allura brushed back her hair with her hands and stepped back up to the podium. 

“It’s fine. It was a lot to take in at once.” Adam’s face was pale and clammy looking as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his faded jacket.  Allura spared him a soft smile, something that was a first to see. 

“Yeah, what Adam said. Princess, you lost your home. I couldn’t, I don’t want to imagine what it would be like to lose my family. Take the time you need.” Keith glanced over to Lance. He looked sad and fearful. Everyone, well all of the humans looked fearful. 

“Thank you, Lance. But now is not the time to mourn for my father and my people. I shall mourn after Zarkon has been defeated.” Allura clasped her hands together and looked more like a royal than any of the human royals back home. 

“Are you sure?” Lance looked uncertain at this prospect. This wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, at lest Allura was putting her emotions to good use instead of not putting them to good use. Keith wasn’t making any sense to himself. 

"Princess, you must eat. It's been 10,000 years!" Coran appeared with a floating plate of green goo? To be honest it looked a little nasty. But Keith was hungry and right now he was ready to eat anything. 

"I'm not hungry." Allura waved off Coran and turned back to the console, trying to do whatever she was. She might be a princess and may sort of be charge here but the least she could do was let them in on what she was doing. Keith was so lost.  

"Man, 10,000 years? That's like one thousand plus ten." Lance counted on his fingers. Keith had to hold back a little a laugh. Lance may be a little dumb sometimes but at least the guy could make the tension go away.   

"That's times ten." Keith rolled his eyes. Math wasn’t that hard, and Keith hasn’t been in school for years. 

Lance scoffed and rolled his eyes, crossing his arms in a huff. "Whatever, dessert boy."

“Wanna go?” Keith stood up and tried to ignore the fact that Lance was taller than him. Curse the distant family member that he inherited his five foot eight-inch frame from. It was almost like this lanky fucker stole Keith’s extra inches off of him.  

“Sure why not?” Lance glared at Keith. Did Keith really want to fight this guy? Not really but now he was committed to this fight and he wasn’t going to be the coward to back down. Lance would shove it in his face for the rest of their relationship. 

"I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm starving." Bless Hunk for taking Lance’s attention away from Keith and inevitably diffusing the situation with ease. Hunk crept up to the food plate and peeked at it. Coran looked over to Hunk with amused eyebrows.  

"Yeah, but you've thrown up, like, five times." Pidge pointed out. 

Hunk paused and considered Pidge’s point. He tapped his chin and shrugged. "Hmm... Good point." He started eating the food goo. He paused and gave the goo a gross look but continued to eat it. Honestly? Big mood.  

"I can't believe your civilization created such advanced technology 10,000 years ago. It must have been an incredible place." Shiro looked at the pods around them and Allura still going ham on the computer. 

“Indeed, the tech is light years ahead of Earth’s. This is amazing.” Adam copied Shiro’s glazed look. 

"Yes, it was... but now it is gone and we're the last Alteans alive." Coran brought down the mood with that cheerful look. 

Allura sighed and dropped her hands. Coran took her hand in his and he tried to comfort her. Allura peeked up and headed to her pod. Keith tilted his head in confusion but the confusion disappeared when she picked up a bunch little mice. "Looks like we're not the last, after all." Aw, cute. 

The cute feeling moment was shattered when the alarms started to blare and Keith’s vision was filled with flickering red. A screen popped up that showed a Galra cruiser approaching them. Well shit. There goes their anonymity. "A Galra battleship has set its tracker to us!" Coran screeched. Keith nearly stumbled back in shock just out if the sheer volume.  

"How did they find us?!" Allura stared at the screen in horror.  

"I'm not sure, but I bet it's Keith's fault." Keith glared at Lance. This motherfucker. He just had to go there. What has Keith ever done to this guy? Other than threatening to put his knife in Lance. But in Keith’s defence, any of the times that Keith threatened to do that was in the context of Keith’s mom. Keith would always stick up his mom. Out of the corner of Keith’s eye, he saw that dad had put his hands in his face. Whatever, Keith could fight Lance if he wanted. 

"Say whatever you've got to say to make yourself feel better... after getting us stuck on the other side of a Wormhole!" Keith got up in Lance’s face and balled his fists in preparation of a fight. Why was this guy so irritating, holy fuck!  

"I'LL STICK YOU IN A WORMHOLE!" Lance yelled back and sticking his face in Keith’s. They were inches apart. Keith could see everything. Every little detail on Lance’s face. Keith could see the little freckles that landscaped Lance’s face and the little lines around his eyes from laughing. It was not fair that someone so annoying was so pretty. Lance didn’t deserve to be this pretty. 

"Stow it, cadets! This is no time to place blame, it's time to work as a team. How long before they arrive?" Shiro pushed the two of them away from each other by putting his hands on their faces and pushing them away. 

Keith crossed his arms and glared at Shiro. “Not a cadet,” Keith muttered but Shiro didn’t hear him. That was probably a good thing. 

Coran looked at his hands and started to doing weird finger math that didn’t make sense.: "At their speed? Oh, well, uh, carry the two... I'd say probably a couple of days?" Coran squinted at his fingers and then looked up. That didn’t seem too bad. It would them time to prepare and find the rest of the lions. 

"Good. Let them come! By the time they get here, you five will have reformed Voltron, and together, we will destroy Zarkon's empire!" Keith was liking where this was going. He liked Allura’s anger and passion. 

Hunk burped, shattering the dramatic build up. It almost made Keith laughed. "Sorry! Food goo."

"Princess, there are five of these Lions. How are we going to find the rest?"

Coran was the one to answer Shiro’s question. "King Alfor connected the Lions to Allura's life force. She alone is the key to the Lions' whereabouts."

“If you all would follow me.” Allura brushed passed then elegantly and left the room. They scrambled to follow her out of the room. Geez, she walked fast. Keith almost had to run to catch up with her. He felt a little sorry for Pidge with their tiny legs. 

They came to what Keith thought might be a throne room at the top of the castle. Windows circled the room filling with natural sunlight. Crystal-like stones glittered and rainbows danced along the walls. Allura marched to the centre of the room and activated the computer, opening up a map of the entire universe. The blue that glowed against the wall mingled with the glimmer of the crystals. 

"Whoa!" Keith couldn’t help but go along with the others. 

"These are... coordinates. The Black Lion looks like it's in the same location as the Blue Lion." Pidge pointed to the two glowing lions. 

"Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little brain cage!" Keith wasn’t sure if Coran was insulting or praising Pidge. It was kind of hard to tell with Coran. 

"Very observant. That's because the Black Lion is in the Castle." Allura’s eyes twinkled with praise when she looked over to Pidge. 

"To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon's hands, King Alfor locked it in the Castle. It can only be freed if the other four Lions are present." Coran very enthusiastically bounced around behind Allura.  

"As you have found, the Lions choose their pilots. It is a mystical bond and cannot be forced. The Quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in his Lion. Together, they form something greater than science can explain.” Allura sends the Black Lion hologram towards Shiro. Shiro looked tired but willing to take the pressure of being the leader. "The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times, someone whose men will follow without hesitation. That is why, Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion." Allura moved her hands and the Green Lion’s holograms started moving towards of Pidge. "The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring. Pidge, you will pilot the Green Lion.” Pidge gave Allura a cat-like smile. The Blue Lion—"

"—Whope, hold up, let me guess: Takes the most handsome slash best pilot of the bunch?" Lance interrupted Allura and sent her a smile. Allura just gave him an annoyed look but continued. 

"The... Yellow Lion is caring and kind." Allura waved her hands once again and the hologram of the Yellow Lion flew towards Hunk. Now Keith didn’t know the guy very well but Keith kind thought that it suited him. "Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty. As the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together." Confused, Hunk pointed to himself and didn’t look very convinced. "The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master. It's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone. Keith, you will fly the Red Lion." The tips if Keith’s ears red when he saw dad chuckle at Allura’s description. For fuck’s sake, so Keith nearly stabbed one kid. But in his defence James deserved it. 

"What? This guy?" Lance pointed to Keith and it seemed that there was a second kid that deserved a shanking.  

Allura gave Keith an apologetic look. "Unfortunately, I cannot locate the Red Lion's coordinates yet. There must be something wrong with the Castle. After 10,000 years, it... might need some work." Allura looked around the pristine castle room. 

 "Don't worry, we'll find it soon. They don't call me "The Coranic" for nothing. It's because it sounds like "mechanic." So... Coranic, mechanic. It's not—It doesn't sound... exactly like it. It's similar." Keith chuckled slightly at Coran. 

“Tex, Adam, unfortunately, that is the limit of Voltron. If you would accept my apologies that would extremely grateful. Perhaps in the future, we shall find something for the two of you.” Allura clasped her hands together in apology. 

Dad rose his hands. “S’alright darlin. I didn’t expect to be apart of this. I’m more than happy to run the coms for y’all and play medic.” 

“I’m with Tex on this one. I’m more than fine to play backup.” Adam shook his head. “As long as I know you guys are safe.” 

Allura gave both of them grateful look and then turned back to the five of them. The hologram of the five lions roared and started flying together, transforming into the Voltron as Keith saw in the vision. "Once all the Lions are united, you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever known, the Defender of the Universe." Allura seemed to somehow instill courage in all of them. 

"Awesome!" Hunk looked around. Pidge made a little squeak but was cut off by Hunk. "Wait. Okay, we're going to be in there and flying Lions. Got that part. How do Lions turn into legs? Also, is this going to be a long trip? Because I have to pee. Do you people pee?” Keith sighed and grinned. 

"You know we don't have much time. Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion. Lance, you take Hunk and get the yellow one. Keith, you stay here. If you locate that Red Lion, go get it." Shiro took charge once again. 

"In the meantime, I'll get this Castle's defences ready. They'll be sorely needed." Allura once against looked at the walls again with disdain. 

"I'll ready a pod a-and load in the coordinates so that you can reach the Green Lion." Coran grinned and jumped off to get the pod ready. 

“Guess I’m staying here,” Keith muttered. 

“What embarrassed to spend time with yer old man?” Dad teased and nudged Keith. 

“It’s not that.” Keith tried to keep his voice down so the others wouldn’t hear him. There were certain things that he wanted to keep private from the others. 

“I know kiddo, I’m just goofing.” Dad nudged Keith again. Keith batted his hands away and looked out the windows. The only other people in the room with them was Allura and Adam, the rest had followed Coran down to the shuttle bay to go and get their lions. “This is for you kid.” Keith looked down to the duffle bag that dad was holding out for him. 

“Thanks?” Keith asked, taking the bag from his dad. Why was dad giving him the duffle bag? Keith didn’t even know what was in it. It was safe to say that Keith was very confused. 

“I packed clothes for you. When I was packen I wasn’t quite sure where we’d end up but I knew that you wouldn’t wanna be stuck in yer suit the entire time.” Dad gave Keith a little wink. “Be careful there are some delicate things.” Delicate as in explosives? Keith took a quick glance and was right. Dad packed clothes next to bombs. Typical dad but Keith was thankful that dad had even thought about it. If Keith was being honest, when he and mom had headed to the blue lion, Keith hadn’t stopped to even think about if they were going to be jetted into outer space. It would suck if Keith was stuck in his blade of Marmora suit for the whole time. It wasn’t exactly the comfiest. God bless dad for thinking to pack. 

“I’m going to get changed. Be back.” Keith gave dad a little wave goodbye and left the room. It wasn’t until the doors behind him shut with a slight hiss that Keith didn’t know where the bathroom was. Or any room for him to change. God fucking damn it. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for not updating recently. I haven't had much inspiration for this work. But I'm back and I will try to continue to work on it but no promises.

Tex wasn’t sure how he felt watching all of these young kids jet off, to go find the rest of the lions. It was their age that really got him. Same with the princess Allura. He thought that she looked very young, and acted so young. These kids were pretty much Keith’s age. It took all of Tex’s will not to jump out and stop Allura from sending them out. It was his fatherly instinct to take care of these younglings. Especially Pidge. They barely looked older than eleven. Age is a bit of a deceiver but still, Pidge was a child. He wasn’t as worried about Shirogane. He was an adult same with with Adam. The other two boys unsettled him. They were Keith’s age and he couldn’t imagine how their parents were going to feel when they heard the news that their little boys were missing. Tex would raise hell and hunt down the fucker who took Keith if he was in that scenario. 

“You alright there Tex? You’re looking a little blue!” Coran nearly yelled in Tex’s ear. Years of honing in on his training and living with Krolia made Tex recoil and raise his arm to strike the man. At the last moment Tex stopped himself. 

He dropped his hand, shaking it slightly. “Yeah I’m just dandy.” Coran nodded and moved to jump off again but froze when Tex sighed. “It’s just that these are kids. Don’t ya feel bad for sending these kiddos out to fight the Galra, knowing how brutal they can be?” 

Coran sighed and looked over to the door where Allura had left. “I guess you’re right. But the Galra destroyed my home. ‘Llura’s too. Countless children and helpless ones. Even if we have adults pilot the lions, the Galra would go after them. It’s in their nature. Besides the lion’s choose their paladins, we can’t change their minds. Well metaphorical minds. Don’t think that the lions have minds.” Coran’s words didn’t settle the worried feelings in Tex’s stomach and what he said about the Galra being bloodthirsty creatures was wrong. Tex may be thinking some foolish thoughts but he didn’t believe that every single Galra being in the universe was like Zarkon. It wouldn’t be possible. Krolia wasn’t like that and Tex did not think that she was the outlier. She wasn’t; there was the rest of the blades and Tex didn’t actually know the total number of the blades. They were always changing, losing some and gaining some. 

He realized that Coran was waiting for an answer. Tex shrugged. “Guess you’re right. It’s just that it’s my boy that going out there.” 

“Wasn’t he training to be apart of this rebel group?” 

Unfortunately Keith was. Tex didn’t want that for his boy. He wanted his boy to live a life without pain and fighting. But this was Keith wanted and Tex wanted to support his little boy as much as possible. It was either not support him and Keith ended up getting hurt or Tex could do his darndest to make sure that Keith stayed safe. “He is. But it’s different, him being in trainen and him actually going into a fight.” Tex shrugged and looked back to outside of the window. 

“Where did that young whippersnapper go? He didn’t go with the rest did he?” Coran frowned and looked around him. 

“Nah. He went to go change. That suit of his ain’t too comfortable for long term use.” Tex waved a hand towards where Keith had disappeared to. 

Coran nodded and twirled his mustache. “Yes that is fair. Combat suits are terribly uncomfortable. I remember this one time I was in the jungles of Cantor with Alfor, Princess Allura’s father and I was wearing this awful combat suit that Alfor insist that I wear. Oh boy it was terrible. There was this part…. Oh hello princess! Where you wander off too?” Coran spotted Princess Allura and Adam walk back in. 

“I was just showing Adam our labs. He was very excited to see them.” Allura cast an amused look over to Adam. Adam’s face flushed and he looked a little embarrassed. “Now Tex I wished to speak to you and Keith.” Allura paused and looked around for Keith. “Speaking of which, where is he?” 

“He’ll be back in a min darlien.” Tex felt a little weird calling her darling but the term of endearment slipped out before he could stop himself. Allura smiled at the tearm and now he didn’t feel so as bad saying it. 

The doors slid open and on reflex everyone turned and looked at the newcomer. It was just Keith. He paused when he saw everyone staring at him. He dropped his duffle bag, it landed with a thump and gave them all weird look. “What? Can I help you?”  

Tex inwardly sighed. He blamed Keith’s mother for his brashness, Keith definitely did not enheart that from Tex. “Nothen kiddo.” 

“Actually Keith, I wished to speak with you and your father about the rebel group that you mentioned earlier.” 

Keith’s face grew tight at the mention of the Blades of Marmora and tex saw his hand slip into his pocket where the com must be. “I don’t know much. Mom and Dad kept a fair amount from me. I just started getting information now. But they’re called the Blades of Marmora. I’ve never met anyone other them mom but apparently they’re made up of people from across the universe and a couple of them are apparently Galran.” Tex winced when Keith said that last part. Come on kiddo, didn’t he and Kroila teach him better? Tex hesitantly looked to Allura whose face was one of a marble statue. Just had a hint of emotion but hard to decipher. At least Coran had some emotion. He just looked disturbed. Tex wanted to step in and defend the Galra but a sharp pain in his shoulder stopped him. A painful reminder of that how bad the Galra could be and now fucking powerful their cruisers were.  

“I see. I guess that it should be expected with an empire as vast as the Galrans there should be a few that do not fit the shape the mold.” Allura sniffled hauntingly. It made Tex feel gross inside. His wife was one of the people that she was turning her nose up too. “Would you be able to get into contact with these Blades of Marmora? It would be beneficial to have allies while going up against Zarkon.” 

“Mom said that she’d call when she got into contact with the other Blades. She hasn’t called yet.” Keith’s voice broke and all Tex wanted to do was pick up his kiddo and hug the shit out of him. No one, especially his son deserved to feel like this. 

“Well keep me updated on the situation if you may.” Allura clasped her hands in front of her and gave Keith a diplomatic smile. 

“Will do.” Keith crossed his arms and awkwardly looked off to the distance. The corners of Allura’s mouth turned up in amusement. Tex smiled too. 

      ***

This was bullshit. While everyone, including that idiot Lance, was out looking for the lions, Keith was stuck here. In this castle with his dad, two weird aliens, and this new guy Adam. Guess it wasn’t the worst but Keith knew that when Lance was going rub it in. He was endearingly loud. Was endearing the right word? 

Keith didn’t hate the guy. Lance was okay. He was brave, walking up to the lion like that and getting up into Keith’s face. Even that part was annoying and the part where Lance flirted with mom. That was gross. But confident. Keith wished he was confident. He wasn’t, not by a long shot. He avoided people as much as possible. It’s kind of why he finished high school and went to live in the desert. 

Through the window Keith could see the wormhole that Allura had created. Small figures shot out of the wormhole. Keith saw blue, yellow, and green. They had all gotten their lions. All they needed was the red lion to unlock the red lion. 

 

Keith headed to the control room or whatever it was called to wait for the others. Dad and Coran were off to the side doing whatever old guys did. Allura was in the center doing whatever she was doing. She dropped her hands and looked out of the window. 

She looked elegantly excited. A few moments later the doors burst open and a wall of words hit Keith like a wall. They looked all so happy and excited. Especially Lance. He laughed and pushed Hunk away from him. What annoyingly pretty person. He was almost obnoxiously pretty.     

Shiro frowned and looked around. “Where’s Adam?” 

“He is making himself acquainted with our laboratories on the lower floors. He seemed quite keen on learning our technology.” Allura waved her hand dismissively. Allura clapped her hands and fluttered her eyelashes at all of them. "But you made it!”

Lance made an exaggerated defeated posture. Keith crossed his arms and glared at the ground. "Yeah, just barely. That was a nightmare. I almost puked out there. I felt like Hunk!" Lance stifled a laugh. 

Hunk hugged his stomach and his mouth wobbled. "Think how I felt. I am Hunk!" 

Pidge’s mouth curled into a cat like smile. "Yeah... We had a tough time, too." They(?) shared a smile with Shiro. What a bunch a liars. 

Then out of the blue, Shiro snapped out of his soft attitude to super serious. “So did we find the Red Lion yet?" The other three suddenly perked up at the mention of the red lion. Keith tried to keep his interest hidden.  

Coran burst into the frame in his all of his glory. "Allura just located i!. There's a bit of good news and bad news. The good news is, the Red Lion's nearby. The bad news is, it's on board that Galra ship now orbiting Arus. But wait, good news again. We're Arus!"

That felt like a bit of a slap to the face. The Galrans were here? Well shit. 

Shiro looked defeated. "They're here already?"

Coran crouched, counting his fingers and stroking his mustache. "Yes. Guess my calculations were a bit off. Finger counting—I-It's more of an art than a science. Hmm?" Coran snapped to attention and was suddenly rod straight. It was exhausting to look at. 

A video transmission overtakes the Castle's screen, cut off what Allura was going to say next. On the screen a Galran appeared. He was Galran but not like mom or any of the other Blade of Marmora soldiers. His fur looked almost matted. His fake eye swiveled around around. 

When he spoke, Keith shivered a little. "Princess Allura, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I am here to confiscate the Lions. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet." The screen flickered and then disappeared.  

They were trapped in silence. Then Shiro sighed.  "All right, let's not panic."

Hunk nearly screamed. "Not panic? Th-The scary purple alien thing is driving his battleship toward us. We only have four Lions."

Pidge pointed to Hunk. "Technically, only three working Lions."

Hunk rolled his eyes and sighed. "That's right. Thank you, Pidge. Three working Lions an-and a Castle that's, like, 10,000 years old."

Coran popped into view. "A-Actually, it's 10,600 years old. You see, it was built by my grandfather—"

"Thanks, Coran. Thank you for that. See? Now is the perfect time to panic!" Hunk glared at Coran. That wasn’t helpful. 

Allura brightened up. "Wait! This Castle has a particle barrier we can activate."

 

Lance winked at Allura. His grin was an attempt at being suave. It failed. "Girl, you've already activated my par—"

"—Lance!" Shirto snapped at him. Lance sulked and crossed his arms. His mouth curling into a pout. 

Coran shook his head. He looked fallen. "The particle barrier won't hold Sendak's ion cannon forever. The Galra technology must have advanced since we fought them last."

Hunk rose a hand, asking for permission to speak. "Panic now?"

"No. We've just got to figure out our plan of action, and... figure it out quickly." Shiro looked out to the window. 

"I say we pop through a Wormhole and live to fight another day." Lance dramatically pointed out the window where Shiro was looking. 

“And then what? We keep running?” Keith snapped. He dug his nails into the palms of his hands. This jackass. 

“Keith…” dad sighed, putting his face in his hand and shook his head. 

“Well what else do we do? We got to survive!” Lance exclaimed.  

“The Galra will keep coming! They won’t leave us alone. They will attack and take everything that we care about. We are supposed to be the Paladins of Voltron. Doesn’t that mean anything to your peabody brain? We’re supposed to be the ones that stand up to these guys. Countless beings have given us their lives to stop the war and now we have a chance to end it for once and bring peace to the universe!” 

Lance looked a little uncomfortable. “I’m not saying that we should keep running. Just for now!” 

“If we start running then we’ll never stop. We need to take a stand!” 

“Look,” Shiro intejected. He stepped between them. His arms out to stop Keith from lunging at this idiot. “As slightly misguided that Keith is in his opinion, he’s right. We need to take a stance against the Galrans.” 

“Not to mention, the Red Lion is on that ship! You know, the lion we need to get to unlock the Black Lion!” Keith pushed Shiro away and got into Lance’s dumb but stupidly aesthetically nice face. 

“You’re just grouchy because we have lions and you don’t.” Lance jabbed his finger in Keith’s face. 

That was it. Keith lunged at Lance, ready to teach this dummy a fucking lesson. Keith grunted when he was pulled back. Dad had looped his arm around Keith’s waist and pulled him away. “Let go of me!” Keith grounded out, struggling to get out of this hulk like grip. Dad dropped him a safe distance from Lance. Keith still glared at him. 

 

“Keith’s right. We need that lion. It’s the only way that we can assemble Voltron and stop the Galran empire.” Dad took Keith’s side. Keith gave Lance a smug grin. Lance glared at Keith. 

“So we’re going against the big battleship?” Hunk asked. 

“Yes Hunk. We’re going against the big battleship.” Shiro looked defeated but ready to fight. 


End file.
